Forest way

Wild forests and rural beauty at the edge of the wilderness define a back-road journey parallel to the South Coast of New South Wales.

Story By Don Fuchs

The South Coast of New South Wales is wedged between two formidable wildernesses: the South Pacific Ocean to the east and a belt of rugged and mountainous national parks to the west. These heavily forested reserves form a continuous nature corridor from the Victorian border to the Southern Highlands, south of Sydney.
To properly explore this string of national parks a four-wheel-drive vehicle, camping gear and provisions for several days are essential.
To properly explore this string of national parks a four-wheel-drive vehicle, camping gear and provisions for several days are essential.
The southernmost of these wild places is South East Forests National Park. The park is reached via the small village of Candelo and the winding Tantawangalo Mountain Road. It is spring, and in spite of south-eastern Australia being in the grip of a strong El Niño event with below average rainfall, the paddocks and rolling hills past Bega glow green. Storms have built up during the day. Heavy clouds and veils of rain obscure the dark mountains to the west. Past Candelo, the bitumen ends and manicured farmland gradually transforms into more rugged paddocks. Then the edge of the forest is announced with ferns lining creeks and gullies, leaves still shiny from the deluge. The heady scent of eucalypts wafts through the cool air.
Tucked into the forest is the Six Mile Creek Campground. The camp was part of a travelling stock route, where goods were moved from the coast to the Monaro region. In times of drought it became an escape route for stock. On the way from his office in Bombala to Cooma for a meeting, park ranger Franz Peters stops at the campground, checking on the progress of an upgrade of a short, wheelchair-accessible track to a lookout and waterfall.